Val Guest

Val Guest began his career as an actor on the British stage and in early sound films. He ran the one-man London office of “The Hollywood Reporter” until an encounter with director Marcel Varnel led to a screen writing job at Gainsborough Studios.

Guest’s directing career began in the early 1940s with a Ministry of Information short about the perils of sneezing (!), an inauspicious start to a lengthy roster of films that includes many Hammer classics such as The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Quatermass 2 (1957) and The Abominable Snowman (1957).

 He was married to the actress Yolande Donlan from 1954 until his death in 2006, aged 94.